About Me
My background
I have been a wanderer for most of my life. As a child, I drifted from one end of the country to the other and back again as my dad went to medical school and pursued a career as a Pediatrician in the US Navy. After getting my BA in French at Brigham Young University in Utah, I served as a proselyting missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany and then studied briefly at Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, CA. When I married an Army man, I knew my journey would continue, and I have followed him to Korea, Germany, Texas, Virginia, and many other places across the United States as he has served our country, retired, pursued higher education, and begun a new career. Our travels have truly been an adventure, but my greatest adventure has been as a wife and mother. My family has brought me greater joy, greater sorrow, greater challenges, and greater learning than I ever could have imagined. Without them, I am not myself. With them, I have hope to become the person I always wished to be.
My writing roots
For the past ten years, I have been writing stories and books to entertain my four children, as well as to ease the symptoms of depression I have experienced in connection with my husband’s worsening disabilities. For five years, I was also a volunteer writer for the refugee advocacy organization Their Story is Our Story, and was an associate editor for their book, Let Me Tell You My Story. Now, as I work to tell my own stories, I hope that I will be able to bring light to someone’s darkness, peace to someone’s storm, and healing to someone’s broken heart.
My style
I believe that storytelling is a powerful tool for uncovering and imparting truth. Drawing from my own life, anecdotes from family and friends, and insights gleaned from scriptures and modern-day prophets, I seek out and expound upon the eternal truths God imparts to us through our experiences. Each story serves as a conduit for imparting meaningful lessons, inviting readers on a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment. By embracing the shared humanity woven through our stories, I seek to illuminate and inspire readers. It is my hope that as we learn from each other’s stories, we will choose to embrace empathy as a guiding principle in our interactions with others and thus bring about the positive change we wish to see in the world.
Dallin's Story
On February 6, 2023, my eight-year-old son Dallin fell off a slide at school and hit his head on the frozen ground. The next day, he died. Our lives have been changed forever because of Dallin's death, but even more because of his life. He loved being a little boy, and he filled each moment with excitement and vitality. Dallin lived a lot of places in his short life, and every time we moved, he immediately sought out new best friends. He loved them all fiercely and missed them with heartbreaking intensity when it was time for us to move again. He hated the discomfort that came with trying something new, and I had to bully and coax him into learning to read, to ride a bike, to finish running his laps at soccer practice. But once he pushed past the hard part, he embraced his new skills with passion and joy. Dallin was silly and funny, loving and tender, pesky and pouty, mischievous and and clever. He made lots of mistakes and sometimes forgot to be kind, but he was also quick to apologize and sincere in his desire and efforts to be a good person. We treasure each memory we have of him, even more now that memories are all we have. We are happy to share some of those memories with you. See the slideshow below or click on Dallin's picture to go to his obituary.